And there was this wonderful looking Santa sitting majestically at their Window with a list of good girls and boys. And u'll never believe this, of all the people in the world my name was right on top. My children were so impressed. Here, take a look:-))
At first, I had uploaded the pictures in colour and then out of curiosity changed one picture to grayscale and checked out the result. Loved what I saw, so went ahead and converted all the rest to the same:-).
The houseboat in the above picture was a boat with 3 bedrooms with attached bathrooms our boatman stressed and the better-half and I supressed a laugh at his enthusiasm. He also told us that it cost Rs10,000/- to rent this luxurious houseboat for 24 hrs.
On the day we were there it was very cloudy and it had rained heavily the previous two days, so I guess that's why most of the house-boats were tethered to the banks of the river though the house-boat in the picture above was one of the few which was smoothly gliding through the water.
This picture was taken solely to celebrate the drive of the coconut tree which rose above all the rest of the wild growth, to tower over them:-).
And this picture is to show that even mini sized houseboats co-existed peacefully along with the giant-sized ones:-))
I'm not sure of the name of this flower but u can find it in almost all houses in Kerala. As children we used to sip at the nectar found at the base of each tiny flower.
Rows and rows of Rose plants fully flowered stood at the edge of the garden. I had taken lots of pictures but in the end decided to put up the one and only picture of the rosebuds I had taken:-)).
Again a simple yellow flower found in most of the gardens in Kerala.
Hibiscus flowers ofcourse everybody is familiar with. In the olden days(and even now) the leaves of this plant are smashed and used coz it acts like as a natural shampoo & conditioner. I remember my mother vigorously applying it into my hair when I was small. And I used to squirm and struggle as I didnt like the icky feeling:-)).
I've never seen this yellow flower before, have u????
This velvet flower plant is supposed to have grown by itself. And it keeps shedding its seeds all around that tiny shoots just spring up overnight. The parents were tired of removing the unwanted shoots everyday and kept threatening to pull out the plant to end the problem:-P.
This picture of the gulmohar flower was clicked in Bangalore. The Gulmohar tree, lining both sides of most of the road is a very familiar sight here and an attractive sight to be seen when all the trees flower together. As kids we used to pick up the opened-out pods and pull out the sepals[I think] separately and stick them onto our fingers as artificail nails and go around acting like witches and threateningly wriggling our fingers.
Since the monsoons were in, the days were not exactly bright & sunny. The clouds were always hanging low & threatening to pour. Anyways the picture above was clicked on one of those rare sunny days:-).
This picture was clicked around 6.30 & I loved the way the approaching darkness was contrasting with the voluminous clouds. I hurried into the house to get the camera & rushed out with it to catch the mood. My husband's mother followed close behind to see what got me into such a frenzy. U should have seen her face when she realised I was furiously clicking pictures of the coconut tree:-D.
Now this picture is something special. You had to have been there to just believe this scene. It was again just 6.30 in the evening when all of a sudden the tone of the evening just changed...I stood there with my mouth open watching the brightness of the day turn into a mood which an author would use 4 pages to describe but still will not be able to capture the very essence of it, so I'm not even going to try.
My husband's mother watched me in expectation for a few minutes & then when she could bear it no longer, burst out "Aren't you going to click any pictures?????"
Don't miss the stars twinkling in the sky & 'real' gravel on the tracks underneath the train. And there are mirrors everywhere giving an illusion of a larger area.
And finally out of the 2 dozen pictures I had clicked, this is my favourite. I had asked a waiter if he would pose near the entrance so that I could take a picture. He on his own initiative leaned out of the door & gave a cheery wave. Sort of revokes nostalgia, doesn't it:-)!!!
